Pender's Blog by Lee Pender, RCPU Editor

An RCPU Mea Culpa

Before we get started today, I'm going to drop the first-person plural because
I need to tell you that I messed something up, and it's kind of embarrassing.
Oh, it's not that big of a deal, really, but a couple of readers (Jeffrey and
Walt) noticed a boneheaded move in the first entry in last
Thursday's RCPU. Walt sums it up well:

"'Still, though...ouch. These are the kinds of messages that bring
to mind depression-era
billboards that encouraged jobless men to not give up -- messages that
are encouraging but also pretty ominous. OK, granted, we don't think that
things will get anywhere near this bad, and we're not seriously suggesting
that there will be bread lines in Redmond or anywhere else any time soon.'

"I don't think that billboard is encouraging these jobless men to
not give up. If I read this correctly, this billboard is a warning to jobless
men traveling through town to keep on moving. The billboard says, 'Jobless
men keep going -- We can't take care of our own,' and it is signed, 'Chamber
of Commerce.' To me, this says, 'Don't even think of stopping in this town,
keep moving along -- if we catch you, we'll make sure you get the message'...It
also appears to be in a train yard, which means the jobless men probably rode
in on the rails..."

Walt, you are, of course, 100 percent correct. I had remembered seeing on
a documentary somewhere in the mists of time a few billboards from the Depression
encouraging unemployed men to keep their chins up, but the one I posted clearly
levied pretty much the opposite message: Get out of town; there's no work for
you here. Yeesh...I guess I missed that "We can't take care of our own"
written in fairly big letters at the bottom of the sign. OK, I feel stupid.

What I meant to post was something like this,
which was meant to serve as a pick-me-up but really (I'm guessing) ended up
coming off as ominous, if not a tad condescending. Anyway, thanks to Walt and
Jeffrey for actually paying attention to what they were reading in RCPU. As
for the rest of you: shame, shame, shame. Just kidding. But, seriously, I'm
sorry for the embarrassing mess-up, and I'll try to do better next time. (And
sorry for spending so much time on this, but as a history buff I feel the need
to overcorrect for this gaffe.)